Meb rolls to new Masters records and Rhines captures another Masters crown in San Diego

6/3/2015

SAN DIEGO-- With gray skies and temperatures in the mid 60s, age-group headliners still lived up to their billing at the 2015 USATF Masters Half Marathon Championships hosted by the Suja Rock ‘n Roll Marathon and Half Marathon in San Diego.

Meb Keflezighi (San Diego, California) finished second overall with a time of 1:02:29, setting new American Masters Records for both the 15 km and the 10 mile run. Keflezighi clocked 44:23 at 15 km and 47:39 at the 10-mile mark to surpass existing American records held by Kevin Castille (Lafayette, Louisiana).

Former Team USA Cross Country athlete Clint Wells (Boulder, Colorado), was the third Masters finisher, making his finish in 1:07:14. John Gardiner (Rancho Santa Margarita, California) of the Cal Coast Track Club was fourth in 1:10:09.

On the women’s side, Jen Rhines (Boston, Massachusetts) finished eighth overall in 1:16:36 to capture her second USATF Masters road title. Rhines also won the USATF 5 km Championship last October in Syracuse.

Celestine Arambulo (San Diego, California) claim second place among W45 women with her 1:21:27 time. Boulder Mountain Warriors runner Maureen Wrenn (Boulder, Colorado) was third in 1:21:55. After trailing at the 5 km mark by four seconds, Arambulo caught Wrenn to lead by eight seconds at 10 km. Honor Fetherston, one of the running triplets who finished second behind Christine Kennedy’s record-setting performance at the USATF 8 km Championships in February, won the W60 division in 1:32:03.

Jo Anne Rowland (Concord, California) claimed her second W65 gold medal this year with a 1:46:42 finish.

Sunday also featured many top performances in several other age groups. Christian Cushing-Murray (Santa Ana, California) from the Cal Coast Track Club took the M45 title by over a minute in 1:13:55. Spyros Barres (Mystic, Connecticut) overcame Ricardo Maldonado (Scottsdale, Arizona) in the M50 group with Barres finishing at 1:14:55 to take his second straight championship. Fred Zalokar (Reno, Nevada) won the M55 group with a deep field, including 2013 Masters Runner of the Year, Brian Pilcher (Ross, California). Jan Frisby (Grand Junction, Colorado) took his fourth straight title of the year in the M70 group.

Age-Grading Victors. Age-Grading is the process that provides the best times run in the world at the various distances by runners of all ages. Age-grading scores range up to 100 percent, which is equivalent to the world’s best performance for an athlete of that age. The top-two male overall finishers took the top-two, age-grading results. Keflezighi’s performance graded at 96.08 percent and Castille’s at 94.73 percent.